5 months on RU and 2 months on finasteride

[Illusion]

I've been on 3.5% RU for almost 5 months now and on generic finasteride for almost 2 months now. Started with 0.25mg fin ED and 'worked my way up' (building up probably wasn't necessary in hindsight but w/e), I'm now ~1 month on 1mg ED. I've also been on 1,5ml minox once a day for 2 months, forgot to include that in the thread title.


I've attached photos from the start of RU (5 months ago) and recent photos. The pre-photos are the ones where my face is blacked out, the others are the recent ones. Angles are slightyl different, light is the same though. Also added two recents photo in harsh light to show the state of my hair right now. It's weak-ish all over and there are quite a a lot of miniaturised/vellus hairs in my hair line.

Here's to hoping that it's actually progress (aka the infamous AA-shed before improvement)

[Illusion]

Bump... Any opinions?

I should add that I'm still having an itch... After some experimenting, I don't think it's because of shampooing every day (some posters said this could be the case) and I don't think it's because of the ethanol or pg in minoxidil / RU mix either. I haven't applied it for 3 days now to see if my itch would disappear but it has been about the same / worse.

[Jaclyn]

Bump... Any opinions?

I should add that I'm still having an itch... After some experimenting, I don't think it's because of shampooing every day (some posters said this could be the case) and I don't think it's because of the ethanol or pg in minoxidil / RU mix either. I haven't applied it for 3 days now to see if my itch would disappear but it has been about the same / worse.

Well propecia too can cause itchy scalp, mainly if you are not using Nizoral shampoo along with it. It’s awesome and produces synergistic effect, use it every day leaving it on your head in the shower for 3 or 4 minutes. I read, finasteride screws with your adrenals which in turn screws with your thyroid.
There is no enough proof to correlate two, but many have reported itching with propecia especially during shedding. Contradictory, few believe their itching has subsided since starting propecia. Everyone reacts differently to different things; it’s just the way it is. Perhaps you’ve got something unrelated going on that your dermatologist should be able to diagnose.

[Illusion]

Well propecia too can cause itchy scalp, mainly if you are not using Nizoral shampoo along with it. It’s awesome and produces synergistic effect, use it every day leaving it on your head in the shower for 3 or 4 minutes. I read, finasteride screws with your adrenals which in turn screws with your thyroid.
There is no enough proof to correlate two, but many have reported itching with propecia especially during shedding. Contradictory, few believe their itching has subsided since starting propecia. Everyone reacts differently to different things; it’s just the way it is. Perhaps you’ve got something unrelated going on that your dermatologist should be able to diagnose.

Thanks for your reply.

Thing is, my itch has been less while on propecia but it hasn't completely subsided. It would make sense that the itch would go away on propecia as the itch is being caused by inflammation which on its turn is being caused by follicles being affected by DHT, I believe. That MPB itch is not standard in everyone as everyone's body reacts different to things but it is pretty common I believe.

This makes me worry that I'm still slowly balding on fin. It's just that it would suck to be a full year on fin first and then discover that it didn't stop my hair loss, just slowed it down. In that case I could start dutasteride straight away... Even though I wouldn't like it because of health concerns and because of how much it costs.